PRESS RELEASE

CONTACT INFO:

Heidi Hesse, 602.561.5117

contact@HeidiHesse.com

All American: New Work by Heidi Hesse

Opening at eye lounge, Friday, April 7, with a 5-10 p.m. reception

Heidi Hesse, Camouflaged Liberties, 2005

Acrylic on paper, 30x22"

PHOENIX, Arizona (for immediate release)--After nearly a year away, artist Heidi Hesse has returned to Phoenix with new work, new insight into what it means to be an American -- and a new resolve to seek citizenship after two decades of living in the United States. Her exhibition will be April 7 through 29 at eye lounge, 419 E. Roosevelt St., in downtown Phoenix. The First Friday reception is 5 to 10 p.m., with an artist reception on Third Friday, April 21, from 5 to 9 p.m.

Hesse was born in Germany, raised in South Africa and Germany, and has lived in this country most of her adult life as a legal alien. Her April show at eye lounge, where she is a guest artist, will reflect her previous year spent in two diametrically opposed cultures: Korea -- among the most foreign to a Westerner -- and Omaha, Nebraska, one of the most quintessentially American. The experience of living in a country where she was automatically assumed to be an American, followed immediately by being in one where she was an outsider, deepened Hesse’s ongoing exploration of Americanism. It also inspired her to finally become an official citizen herself.

The eye lounge exhibition features painted stills from Apple Pie Project, the performance art piece Hesse made during her seven-month stint at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, for which she baked apple pies and fed volunteers the iconic American pastry and chronicled their responses. The show also comprises portraits of fellow artists at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha. During Hesse’s three-month studio residency there, portraiture became a way of deepening the necessarily short-term connections she forged with fellow artists-in-residence and became a metaphor for American mobility and, ultimately, rootlessness. 

Hesse, a graduate of ASU’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program and Ohio State University’s Master of Fine Arts program, has had solo shows in museums and galleries from Tucson to New York to Korea. Her work is in numerous private international and local collections. She is a past recipient of the individual artist fellowship grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts.  More information is available on her Website, www.heidihesse.com.

Support for participation in the residencies which resulted in the artwork for this exhibition was provided in part through grants from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, the Changdong National Art Studio at the National Museum of Contemporary Art –Korea, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and from private support through the Ted Decker Catalyst Fund.

eye lounge is located at 419 E. Roosevelt St., along the Roosevelt Row Arts District in downtown Phoenix, is open Fridays, 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.; Saturdays, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.; and by appointment through contact@heidihesse.com. For additional gallery information call 602.430.1490 or visit www.eyelounge.com.

Heidi Hesse, Apple Pie Project, 2005     (2 of 5)              

Acrylic on linen, 38x57"

Heidi Hessse, Greg,  2005   (1of 3)

Acrylic on canvas, 40x30"

for MORE INFORMATION and IMAGES, please visit  www.HeidiHesse.com

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